This page has been getting a lot of interest lately, so I’m in the process of refreshing the information. Since there is a lot to double-check, it will take a while, but meanwhile I will leave the old content up. Please feel free to come by in December 2021 again to see the latest!

On this page you will find resources for reading, studying, researching and working in global mental health. All resources have been selected by me and are shaped by my experience and knowledge, but I’ve tried to stick to the free resources accessible by everyone. I would be happy to add anything you would like to recommend – use the form at the bottom to send it on to me.

If you are looking to…

… read more about global mental health:

If you are new to the field and want to get an idea of the scope of the scientific field, you may want to start with the Lancet series of articles on global mental health [free registration may be required]. Explore the 2007 series and the 2011 series at the links. A few other interesting articles to read may be ‘Global mental health: a failure of humanity‘ for a wider view of the cultural trends, ‘How scientifically valid is the knowledge base of global mental health?‘ for a critique, and ‘Why does mental health not get the attention it deserves? An application of the Shiffman and Smith Framework‘ for analysis of the field impact. 

Interested in more? A few dense books written from different perspectives are ‘Global Mental Health: Principles and Practice‘ on the core topics and methods of the field, ‘Global Mental Health: Anthropological Perspectives‘, which highlights the way mental health is intimately connected to other circumstances in society and life, and ‘Re-Visioning Psychiatry: Cultural Phenomenology, Critical Neuroscience, and Global Mental Health‘ exploring interdisciplinarity and advancing debate on the further role of psychiatry.

This bibliography ‘Selected sources in global mental health (downloadable document), which I compiled in 2017, can help you find more reading materials related to global mental health.

A new database, the Global Mental Health Assessment Database, aims to give open access to tools designed or adapted for use in low- and middle-income countries, with displaced populations, and what is known as the Global South.

… get the news in global mental health:

I started the newsletter Global Mental Health Unboxed, where you can get the latest events, publications, job vacancies and resources – read it here and subscribe if you would like to keep updated.

This website has an events in global mental health page where you can keep informed about upcoming conferences, talks, webinars and open lectures all over the world, as far as I can find them. You can sign up to the newsletter of the Movement for Global Mental Health for general advocacy, services and partnership news, and check out the website of the related Centre for Global Mental Health for research and events news. A great source for news, research, ongoing projects, and resources is the knowledge hub of the Mental Health Innovation Network – you can connect to researchers and practitioners, browse the forum, follow vacancies and find links to organizations working in the field of mental health from all over. Look out also for the United for Global Mental Health organization, which has been active in the UN General Assembly and started the Speak Your Mind campaign. A UK Global Mental Health ministerial summit in 2018 produced this declaration, and a 2019 summit held in Amsterdam advanced the visibility of mental health issues.

… get an education in global mental health:

If you are looking for a Master programme, choosing may be difficult. I can recommend from personal experience the joint MSc in Global Mental Health run by London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and King’s College London – the degree takes place in London, UK. Another strong contender is the MSc in Global Mental Health run by the University of Glasgow, which takes place in Glasgow, Scotland. University of Edinburgh, Scotland, has a recently-launched (as of 2020) MSc in Global Mental Health and Society. Usually such degrees can be studied full-time for 1 year or part-time for 2 years. Queen Mary University of London has MSc courses in topics such as Public Mental Health and also Mental Health: Cultural and Global Perspectives in Mental Health Care, available also as a distance learning option. The Lisbon Institute of Global Mental Health in Portugal has an International Master in Mental Health Policy and Services programme. There are universities which offer global mental health courses as part of their curriculum (usually housed in departments or institutes of global health); one example is Columbia University in the US, whose Global Mental Health Program runs Master programmes. Other examples in the US are University of Washington’s Global Mental Health Program and the Global Mental Health Program run by Yale.  Harvard University has the GMH@Harvard initiative, which also has interesting events, occasional fellowships and the Global Mental Health: Trauma and Recovery Certificate Program. John Hopkins University runs its own Global Mental Health research programme, and William James College in Boston has a Center of Excellence for Multicultural and Global Mental Health.  In Canada, McGill University has a Global Mental Health program of research and training, which stresses more on transcultural psychiatry and offers an interesting string of events, while recently the University of Toronto has started to develop their own Global Mental Health program. In Australia, the University of Melbourne has a Global and Cultural Mental Health Unit which works to improve mental health care in low-resource settings. In Norway, University of Bergen has started a Global Mental Health Research Group where academics work on projects related to improving mental health.

In case you want to undertake a PhD in global mental health, you may want to start by thinking about the topic you would like to engage with. You can easily find researchers working in the area through their publications and institutional affiliations. Projects in global mental health offer a great opportunity to conduct original research, and there is sometimes additional funding for a studentship along the bigger projects. Contact the researchers whose work you are interested in and follow your favourite projects. Research in global mental health is carried out in more institutions than I can list here and in many different disciplines – there is plenty of space for creating your own original contribution.

… work in global mental health as a clinician/practitioner/field worker:

Check out my newsletter, Global Mental Health Unboxed, for job vacancies. There are several avenues for such work:

  • In the non-governmental/not-for-profit sector, there are several prominent organizations which do a lot of work in the area of global mental health. Some of them are, in no particular order, the Mental Health Foundation, BasicNeeds International, MQ, War Child, CBM, the Wellcome Trust, World Vision. Many of them advertise on their own websites or through social media accounts. The jobs may range from campaign organizer, scientific researcher, fundraiser, policy researcher and writer, mediator, analyst, coordinator of activities, manager of project and programme portfolios to simple administrative duties which may give you a way into the world of global mental health.
  • In the group of internationally active charities, main recruiters of mental health specialists are the International Medical Corps, Medecins Sans Frontieres, International Rescue Committee, Action Contre la Faim, the International Committee of the Red Cross and others. These jobs may be more oriented towards mental health in conflicts, disasters and with vulnerable populations, and they can be in the field or at a consultant or manager level. It’s a good idea to check out the forums of MHPSS.net (the Mental Health and Psychosocial Support network) and the Mental Health Innovation Network for job postings.
  • Many other organizations which are active on regional or country level have openings for mental health staff, and the number of openings is expected to grow. If you are interested in a particular region, get to know the organizations working there and connect with them. Again, the MHIN is a good place to start. Do your own research as well – you can find plenty of volunteer opportunities to suit your level of experience.
  • Remember, your expertise will be wider and more valuable if you already have some experience in mental health. This can be in your own country or other setting, including a high-income country. From my own experience I know, and I’ve been assured by psychiatrists I trust, that ‘People are the same everywhere.’

… work in global mental health as a researcher:

Check out my newsletter, Global Mental Health Unboxed, for job vacancies. Keep an eye on the universities listed above with substantial commitment to global mental health research, such as King’s College London, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, the University of Colombia, the University of Glasgow and others. For transcultural mental health research, McGill University in Canada seems to be one of the best. But don’t be limited by these only – research programmes are run by universities in low- and middle-income countries, as well as high-income countries. I will aim to expand this section in the future with a list of universities with global mental health research.

If you are looking to expand your toolkit, a new database, the Global Mental Health Assessment Database, aims to give open access to tools designed or adapted for use in low- and middle-income countries, with displaced populations, and what is known as the Global South.